English Notes on Black Elk Speaks PDF

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Notes on Black Elk Speaks (Chapter 3, p. 13-19): • Begins the summer when Black Elk was nine years old • Him and his people were moving towards the Rocky Mountains • Black Elk was eating with Man Hip in his tepee when he heard the voice again - “It is time; now they are calling you.” • He started to follow the voice, but his thighs began to hurt him; he became very sick a few days later • Two men came from the clouds (the ones Black Elk had previously seen) directly to the ground • Each carried a long spear, and from the points of these a jagged lightening flashed • They told Black Elk that his Grandfathers are calling him • Black Elk followed them (his legs no longer hurt) and was taken away by a cloud into a world of cloud • Black Elk meets a bay horse that introduces him to other animals • WEST 1) Twelve black horses with necklaces of bison hoofs, their manes were lightening and there was thunder in their nostrils • Great white giant lives in the north • NORTH 2) Twelve white horses with manes flowing like blizzard winds and roaring coming from their noses; white geese soared and circled them • EAST 3) Twelve sorrel horses with necklaces of elk’s teeth that had eyes that glimmered like the day-break star and manes of morning light SOUTH 4) Twelve buckskins with horns on their heads and manes that lived and grew like • trees and grasses • Bay horse tells Black Elk that his Grandfathers are having a council and that these animals will take him to them • All the horses were dancing around him • They later turned into different animals and fled back to the four quarters of the world • A heaped up cloud turned into a tepee and a rainbow was the open door of it; inside, there was six old men sitting in a row “They looked older than men can ever be—old like hills, like stars.” • • The oldest one told Black Elk that his Grandfathers are having a council and that they have called him there to teach him Black Elk realizes that these were not old men, but the Powers of the World • • 1) Power of the West, 2) Power of the North, 3) Power of the East, 4) Power of the South, 5) Power of the Sky, 6) Power of the Earth • The first Grandfather gave Black Elk a wooden cup full of water and in the water was the sky; it is the “power to make live” He also gave Black Elk a bow; it is the “power to destroy” • • He tells Black Elk that his spirit name is Eagle Wing Stretches • The Grandfather got up and started running, suddenly turning into a black horse that was very poor and sick • The second Grandfather gives Black Elk a herb of power, which he uses on the black horse; it turns him fat and happy, and he returns as the first Grandfather

• The second Grandfather tells Black Elk that his power will be that of the white giant’s wing, the cleansing wind The third Grandfather points to where the daybreak star was shining, underneath it being two • men who were flying • He tells Black Elk that he will get power from them; they are the ones who had awakened all the beings of the earth The Grandfather was holding a peace pipe that had a spotted eagle outstretched upon the • stem; the eagle seemed alive • Black Elk was told that with the peace pipe, he will heal the sick • The fourth Grandfather was holding a bright red stick that was alive; it sprouted at the top and had branches with leaves on them, and birds within the leaves began to sing The Grandfather said the stick will stand in the center of the nation’s circle • • Black Elk looks down and sees the earth; in the center was the holy stick that was a tree, and there were two roads that crossed—a red and black one • Red road: from the North to the South, the road of good, Black Elk’s nation will walk on it • Black road: from the West to the East, a fearful road, a road of troubles and of war, Black Elk will have the power to “destroy a people’s foes” • The fifth Grandfather is the oldest of them all; he turns into a spotted eagle • The sixth Grandfather was “very old, but more as men are old”; he reversed back to when he was young, turning into Black Elk (this is why he seemed familiar to Black Elk) • He tells Black Elk that his nation on earth will struggle • A voice told Black Elk to walk down the black road with the four kinds of horses (he rode down it on the bay horse that he initially met)...